Introducing our dedicated sector specialist – a Q&A with Colin McMahon

Colin McMahon, our widely respected Director of Financial Services, is next up to take part in our Q&A series. 

In our brief interview, we spent time with Colin chatting about his role here at Sigma Connected, what his experience adds to our financial services offering, and why he thinks our approach to appointing sector-specific directors is making such a long and lasting difference to clients. 

Q. Hi Colin would you be able to give us a brief summary of your career to-date and what brought you to Sigma Connected?  

Colin: 

I have just over 30 years’ experience in financial services, holding a variety of senior roles since around 2007. I’ve mainly worked on the Collections side, but also in credit risk, customer services, client relationship management and supplier management for some very large and well-known companies including HBOS, Lloyds Banking Group, Arrow Global and Nationwide Building Society. I’ve always worked on the client-side until joining Sigma Connected in October 2022. 

You couldn’t fail to notice the amazing growth taking place at Sigma Connected through reading about them in the industry media and across social media platforms. It’s a business which dares to be different, bringing about change to the industry for the better, and one I was keen to be part of. 

Q. You bring huge experience to Sigma Connected as we all know. But can you tell us a bit more about your role? 

Colin: 

More than anything, my role as a sector director is extremely varied. I not only manage our financial services client relations, but also look after prospecting, and the all-important onboarding, of new clients. 

So as a sector lead, and part of our wider commercial team, I spend around half of my time managing existing client relationships, which is all part of Sigma Connected’s strategy to grow with our clients as they grow.  

Another key part of my role is sourcing new business, making sure we’re part of tendering processes and prospecting. The rest of my time is spent supporting my business development colleagues whenever they have engaged with financial services clients interested in outsourcing. 

I believe that having a sector lead involved in those early discussions really does help us understand the clients’ business better. I have many years of working on the creditor side, both operationally and in supplier management, so I can put myself in the clients’ shoes and understand what they are truly looking for and needing from an outsource partner. I’ve managed supplier panels for Lloyds Banking Group, Arrow Global and Nationwide across a range of services so can draw from a lot of experience. 

Q. What benefits do you think you bring to Sigma Connected, having worked client side for over three decades? 

Colin: 

Having worked on the lender side for so many years, I can have a foot in both camps. I think having an appreciation of our clients’ own pressure points and objectives is huge, but also having a good working knowledge of the regulatory environment is so important. 

Being able to understand a client’s operations and how they manage their business is a great benefit. Whether that’s in the types of systems they use, customer treatment strategies they deploy or how they manage risk, I think having my own experience from working for different financial institutions adds to Sigma Connected’s credibility in the sector and brings with it an extra level of reliability and trust. 

Q. And why do you think it’s so important for Sigma Connected to have dedicated sector directors across all the industries they work in? Does it alleviate the pressure on clients? 

Colin: 

The feedback I receive is that clients love having a dedicated sector specialist as the lead on their accounts. 

Some clients rely more on me than others, by asking questions from strategy design to policy. Sometimes they want my opinion, I may not have the answers to everything, but I have vast knowledge from working in some big and well-known banks and building societies in the UK, so they like that a dedicated person can give their perspective and experience.  

There are three main pressure points I am always mindful of when it comes to clients. First and foremost, regardless of type of service, fair customer outcomes and a great customer experience are key. Secondly, our clients’ budgets are always under pressure so optimising cost, helping our clients to reduce their credit losses and impairments and getting value for money from a supplier relationship are essential. Thirdly is regulatory adherence. It is so important that, as a supplier, we adhere to regulatory guidelines and can evidence good standards with robust controls in place across all our operations.  Having an appreciation and firm understanding of all the pressures our clients are under can only add value. 

Q. In your opinion, what is the ‘secret sauce’ that makes Sigma Connected so different for clients? 

Colin: 

I think there are many ingredients in Sigma’s secret sauce!  

More than anything, we are very people centric, and that applies within our business as well as to our clients. Our colleague engagement is through the roof. People genuinely love working for Sigma and that’s not just reflected in our colleague NPS surveys, but it’s feedback we regularly get from our clients. We must have one of the most engaged and dedicated teams across all the BPOs. You can see in our staff tenure, attrition and in our performance for clients how much of a difference it makes and you can feel it when you walk in to one of our call centres. 

I’d also say we have a reputation for being excellent at Collections. Having originated as a Debt Collection Agency back in 2011, supporting customers in financial difficulty is in our DNA, and we’ve evolved as the industry has evolved, embracing regulatory changes in Collections operations as well as developing the award winning ReachOut service, which provides help and support to customers in financial difficulty and often in vulnerable circumstances. 

#I think our operations in Cape Town are another differentiator and it’s great to see so many UK financial services firms outsourcing their operations there. It used to be the case that UK firms offshoring their operations would compromise on quality for the labour arbitrage. That’s no longer the case. In our Cape Town operations we regularly exceed performance and quality of clients’ own internal UK teams, and it’s great to be a part of that.